April 7, 2007
Tournament Results (.pdf)
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HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The Ohio men's golf squad tied with Northern Illinois to share fifth place honors in the 16-team Marshall Invitational at Guyan Golf and Country Club.
Play was halted because of snow on Friday with an incomplete second round, which was resumed once conditions became playable on Saturday. The field then completed the round and the tournament was called.
After shooting a 293, which had them sitting in 10th place after round one, the Ohio men pieced together a 290 in the second round to move up five spots in the final team standings with a 583. Penn State took home the tournament title with a 565, 12 strokes ahead of Ball State and Marquette, which both recorded 577s.
"We're definitely getting better," Ohio Director of Golf Bob Cooley said. "We played well the second round yesterday, then [coming back today to finish the second round] with the weather conditions, we made a couple of bogeys. We let a couple shots get away, but I think the weather had a lot to do with that."
Freshman Chad Warmbein (McMurray, Pa.) recorded the best finish of his young career with a 144, which placed him in a tie for ninth. Following a 70 in the first round, he shot a 74 in the second 18.
"He [Warmbein] played real well last week, and he's starting to try to not hit it so hard, and getting it down the fairways and on the greens," Cooley said. "He's getting better each week."
Mark Phillips (Hilliard, Ohio) followed up his first round 74 with a one-over 72 in the second round to finish in a tie for 14th.
Tied for 55th after the first round, Ryan Siekmann (Dublin, Ohio) and Grant Christman (Columbus, Ohio) carried over that tie to the second as they both finished tied for 34th with 148s.
Mark Cimarolli (Pittsburgh, Pa.) was just two-over through Friday's first round, but added 10 strokes to his second 18 holes and slipped to fifth on Ohio's card with a 156, which tied him for 81st in the field of 92.
Competing as an individual, Ohio's James Ellis (McMurray, Pa.) was just two-over in the second round and wound up tied for 54th with a 151 total.
"All of our guys are just getting better and better," Cooley said. "We've pretty much got our starting five now."
Penn State's Robert Rohanna took the individual title with a five-under 137, narrowly edging teammate Kevin Foley and Marquette's Mike Van Sickle.
Action began on Saturday at around 11:30 a.m., when the course finally became playable. The grounds crew turned the sprinklers on and used blowers to clear the snow off the greens. Most of the snow had melted throughout the course when play resumed. The second round was finished in windy conditions with temperatures hovering around 30.
The Ohio men will travel to Columbus, Ohio, for the Kepler Intercollegiate on April 14-15.
